Coca-Cola 600: Chastain goes from last to first at Charlotte

CONCORD, N.C. — After crashing in NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday afternoon, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain started in last place and made his way through the field to find Victory Lane in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Coming from 40th on the grid, this was Chastain’s first win of the 2025 season and his first victory in a Crown Jewel race, which arrived at the perfect time for a Trackhouse team searching for speed.

Chastain had the ninth fastest car during practice before wrecking it and being forced to go to a backup car to start the 600-mile race. After a long night in the shop with very little to no sleep, the No. 1 team put together another car that was capable of winning NASCAR’s longest race.

“They built a whole new car [and] they were there when I left the broadcast yesterday, and I drove straight to the shop and sat in this car,” Chastain said. “It was just a chassis and a body, no wrap. Three-quarters of the suspension was on it. They were on the Hawkeye, and they were just trying to piece it together because the other one was destroyed. So, it took us the entire race — 590-something miles, to get to the lead.

“Holy cow, we just won the Coca-Cola 600. For our No. 1 Jockey Chevy team, for Busch Light, Acceptance Insurance, Wendy’s, the Moose; it’s so cool to do it on Memorial Day. This race is so big… the Coca-Cola 600. To think about what this weekend means, I drive for a veteran owner in the Truck Series, Al Niece, and he tells me stories. He tells me some, but he doesn’t tell me all. We were in Texas sitting around the campfire and he talks about how proud he is of this country and how he served.

“I know how proud so many of our service men and women are, and the ones that didn’t get to come home and paid the ultimate sacrifice, we raced for them this weekend and it’s because of them that we get to race. We get to race the Coca-Cola 600 and we just won it!”

This was the fourth time in Cup Series history that a driver who started 40th or worse went on to win the race.

The dominant driver of this year’s Coca-Cola 600 was hometown hero William Byron, who won the Xfinity Series race at Charlotte on Saturday. The driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet swept the first three stages for Hendrick Motorsports and led 283 laps en route to a second-place finish.

Byron became the first driver in NASCAR history to score 65 points in a race with the current points system and not win. He also became the first driver to sweep the stages in a Coca-Cola 600 and not win, as Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson did in 2018 and 2021, respectively.

“Well, I was just defending, but it was just — yeah, he was catching me, and I was trying to just defend,” Byron said. “I was getting a little bit tight. Then the scenario there with the cars we were around, it was tough. So, yeah, he got a run on me and was able to get to the bottom and clear me off of two.

“Disappointing just to lead that many laps and such a great effort by our whole team. “Yeah, I guess just could have anticipated that last run a little better. I ran in dirty air for a long time and heated my tires up. Then we lost a chunk of time, and the 45 (Reddick) about crashed in front of us. Yeah, sucks…, we’ll just keep going and keep trying to put races together like that.”

Byron also held an average running position of 1.85 throughout 400 laps.

Another driver who was one of the best in the field was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. The driver of the No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota was running strong inside the top three for the majority of the final three stages before having to come down pit road with just over a dozen laps to go.

Hamlin’s No. 11 team did not get enough fuel in the car on the previous green-flag pit stop. Hamlin ultimately finished 16th.

Results from the 2025 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway are listed below:

Kyle Larson’s Double Attempt

For the second consecutive year, Kyle Larson attempted “The Double,” with the goal of going the full distance in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Also, in back-to-back years, things did not go according to plan, due to the weather-related circumstances out of his control.

In 2024, Larson got to complete all 500 miles in the Indy 500, but never got to take a lap in the Coca-Cola 600 as he got to the track during a rain delay that ultimately ended the race.

This year, Larson caused an incident on Lap 92 of the Indy 500, effectively ending his bid to complete all 1,100 scheduled miles. Then, he flew to Charlotte, where he started second for the Coca-Cola 600, looking to bounce back after an unfortunate showing at Indy

Larson took the lead early at Charlotte, before bouncing off the wall and damaging the right-rear toe link, which inevitably caused him to spin from the lead a few laps later. However, he never bounced back, and during the middle of Stage 2, Larson got caught up in another incident that ended his day.

The driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet only completed 595 of 1,100 scheduled miles, coming up well short of reaching his desired goal.

Larson’s Indy 500 only contract with Arrow McLaren is now up after signing a two-year deal. It is unknown if Larson will attempt “The Double” again in 2026 after two miserable experiences.

“I don’t know.. I saw smoke and I tried to get left through the infield and I just didn’t get far enough left,” Larson said. “I got tagged and it ended our night. Just a bummer of a day all around. I just got super loose into Turn 3 out of nowhere early in the race. I caught the wall and got some toe damage. I thought the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team did a great job in getting us back to where we were somewhat comfortable there the last 200 laps. We just needed to kind of chip away at it and I thought we could still end up OK.

“Just not the day that I wanted, but huge thanks to Rick and Linda Hendrick, all of Hendrick Motorsports, Arrow McLaren, Chevrolet, everybody involved in making the day memorable. It’s just unfortunate, but hopefully we can run it back someday.”

Amazon Prime Video’s NASCAR Debut

The 2025 Coca-Cola 600 marked the first time in NASCAR history that the event was exclusively shown on Amazon Prime Video, a streaming service.

The inaugural Prime Video broadcast booth included:

Other Race Facts

Chase Briscoe started first, only led one lap, and ended up finishing third, which was his best career Coca-Cola 600 finish.

“Yeah, on paper, started first and finished third, but there is a lot more to the story,” Briscoe said. “We made it a lot harder 600 miles than we probably needed to. We just had that penalty early and it kind of put us behind. When you start from the front, you kind of set your car up for clean air, we didn’t anticipate 37th. It just took us forever to just slowly creep up on it.

“We were kind of out of adjustments. So overall, we were probably a third-place car, realistically — just wish we could have got some stage points in our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Overall, a good finish, I wouldn’t say it was a great night. Honestly, that is just been how our season has gone — we’ve gotten really good finishes, but we’ve not just had very good day. So, hopefully, we can put one of those all the way together here soon.”

AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing team had its best performance of the 2025 season. Allmendinger was fifth in Stage 1, sixth in Stage 2, sixth in Stage 3 and finished in fourth.

“The No. 16 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet was good all night,” Allmendinger said. “We ran inside the top five, top six through most of the race. We needed a little bit more to get to the next level, but I’m super proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. We had a tough three weeks there, but it’s great to come back and show up with a lot of speed.

“I told Sgt. Nicole Gee, that’s on the side of our race car, I told her family I was going to do everything I could to try to get them in Victory Lane. It was close! It meant a lot to be able to meet her family. We know what this day is truly about, so I’m proud I could give her a great ride. Almost got all of us to Victory Lane.”

In his No. 77 Chili’s Ride The ‘Dente Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, Carson Hocevar put on arguably the best performance of his career until his engine blew while running in second. He was credited with a 34th-place finish.

23XI Racing had a night to forget, despite Tyler Reddick having one of the most interesting points nights you will see in a NASCAR race. Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst ran 20th or worse for the entire race, while Reddick was inside the top 15 for the majority of the event.

Wallace was involved in an incident that caused a 35th-place finish. Herbst was off the pace the whole race and wound up with a 28th-place finish.

Reddick smashed the wall, got caught speeding on pit road and ended up finishing 26th, two laps down. However, Reddick earned 35 total points due to his performance in each stage, which helped him earn the same amount of points he would have earned if he finished in second without scoring any stage points.

NASCAR Hall of Famer and seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson made his 700th career start. Unfortunately for Johnson, he finished 40th after smacking the Turn 4 wall and causing a multi-car incident. Coincidentally, his Cup Series debut in 2001 ended with an incident in Turn 4 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

GRID RANKING

Strong performances by William Byron and Ross Chastain helped them in this week’s GRID Ranking. Byron jumped multiple spots in the GRID Ranking, while Chastain’s consistency has helped him earn a spot in the NASCAR GRID Rating and GRID Ranking for the first time this season.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

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